Pakistan

Some of the world’s most widely-known cases of anti-Christian pressure and violence have arisen in Pakistan, a country whose founder promoted religious freedom. Asia Bibi’s case prompted international condemnation of Pakistan’s anti-blasphemy laws but there are still dozens of Christians and others on death row for blasphemy. Meanwhile, several churches and Christian colonies have been attacked by Islamists in recent years, leading to the loss of many lives. Although Christians are around 2% of the population, they make up about 80% of the workforce dealing with waste management (sewerage and street-cleaning). World Watch Monitor’s journalism brought changes in employment legislation in Punjab for such ‘sweepers’ in September 2015. `

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Divorce law for Pakistani Christians ‘modernised’

June 30, 2017 Divorce, Imran Khan, Lahore, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, PTI, Punjab

Pakistan’s High Court in Lahore has struck out an amendment in its Christian Divorce Act (1869), meaning Christians will now be able to divorce in a dignified way, without needing to resort to false accusations of adultery. Pakistan’s existing family laws – which are applicable to Christians only – are close […]

Pakistani Christian accused of blasphemy for saying he believes Jesus was final prophet

June 22, 2017 Blasphemy, Gojra, Islamic extremism, Lahore, Quran

A Pakistani bike shop owner has been accused of blasphemy after telling one of his customers that Christians believe Jesus to have been the final prophet. Ashfaq Masih, 28, was arrested following accusations that he had “disrespected” Islam’s prophet, Muhammad. The incident took place in Lahore last Thursday (15 June) […]

Pakistan expels South Korean for ‘illegal preaching’ after murder of Chinese ‘missionaries’

June 21, 2017 Balochistan, China, Islamic State, Lee Zingyang, Meng Lisi, Quetta, South Korea

Pakistan has ordered a South Korean man to leave the country, accusing him of involvement in “illegal preaching activities”, after two of his students at an Urdu-language school were abducted and killed by the Islamic State group, which claimed they had been secretly preaching Christianity. “Investigations have revealed that [Juan […]

South Korea denies claims Chinese nationals killed in Pakistan were missionaries

June 15, 2017 Balochistan, China, Islamic State, Lee Zingyang, Meng Lisi, Quetta, South Korea

A South Korean official says there is “no evidence” that two Chinese nationals, whose abduction and murder in Pakistan has been claimed by the Islamic State group, had secretly travelled there to work – with a South Korean – as Christian missionaries. Pakistan’s interior ministry had claimed Lee Zingyang, 24, […]

Pakistani sewage worker dies after 3 doctors on Ramadan fast refuse to touch him

June 5, 2017 Caste, Ramadan, Sindh, Sweepers

As Pakistani Christians comprise more than 80 per cent of the country's sewerage and street cleaning force, they run a higher risk of work related injuries, sometimes causing death. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A Pakistani Christian sewerage cleaner has died after three doctors refused to treat him till his sludge-covered body had been washed; they said their Ramadan fast would be invalid (“makruh”) because he was “unclean” and also belonged to a low caste. (The word for low caste, “chuhra”, especially derogatory, is […]

Prosecutor in Youhanabad lynching case found guilty of trying to convert 42 Christians

May 31, 2017 Lahore, Punjab, Youhanabad

Location where a mob burnt alive two men in angry reaction to twin church suicide bomb attacks in Youhanabad, March 2015. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

The Pakistani prosecutor who allegedly offered to release Christians in the Youhanabad lynching trial if they converted to Islam has been found guilty of proselytising, reports Dawn. Syed Anees Shah, the deputy district public prosecutor (DDPP), was suspended when the allegation came to light during a hearing in March 2017, […]

Pakistan: 3 months in prison for eating, drinking in public during Ramadan, $250 for providing food

May 26, 2017 Gujrat, Islamic extremism, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Punjab, Ramadan, Sindh

As the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins, religious minorities in Muslim-majority countries such as Pakistan have to be more careful about eating and drinking in public in the scorching heat: on the one hand, it can cost them physical public ire and physical violence; and on the other, in […]

Pakistani Christian schoolgirl told: ‘Do Islamic studies instead of Ethics, or leave this school’

May 23, 2017 Education, Mardan, Punjab, Taliban

A Christian girl studying at a state school in Pakistan has been told by her teacher that, if she refuses to take a class in Islamic Studies, then she should not be in that school. Muqadas Sukhraj chose instead to study Ethics, a subject created as an alternative for children […]

‘We have failed to protect non-Muslims’ – Pakistan government spokesman

May 18, 2017 Islamic extremism, Punjab

An official from Pakistan’s Punjab province has acknowledged that the authorities have failed to protect Christians and other non-Muslims from Islamic extremists. “The intolerance, anger on religious matters and culture of lynching disturbs us,” Punjab government spokesman Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan told journalists and activists at a 12 May discussion in […]

Pakistan: Christian boy, 16, accused of Facebook blasphemy again refused bail

May 17, 2017 Blasphemy, Islamic extremism, Lahore, Nabeel Masih, Nadeem Masih

A Pakistani Christian boy accused of blasphemy for “liking” and “sharing” a Facebook post which “defamed and disrespected” the Kaaba in Mecca – the building at the centre of Islam’s most sacred mosque – has again been refused bail. In February, 16-year-old Nabeel Masih was refused bail by a local […]

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